Kudelski’s income jumps 185%

Despite flat overall revenues (down 0.3 per cent) Conditional access specialists Kudelski Group saw its operating income for last year expand by 68.6 per cent to 60.2 million Swiss Francs (CHF). Kudelski’s net income grew year-on-year by 185.5 per cent from CHF 15.2 million to CHF 43.4 million.

Drilling down into the numbers Kudelski’s operating cash flow for the year to December 31st was up 9.4 per cent to CHF 120.9 million.

Highlights of the year (and more recently) included its cross-licensing agreement with Cisco/NDS, 15 new clients signed during the year, and “solid revenue growth” in the USA in iDTV.

Kudelski, in a statement, said: “The Americas provided the largest revenue contribution of all regions to the iDTV segment, driven by the strong performance in the US with 13 per cent growth in constant currency and the extension of the Group footprint in South America, despite a second half slowdown in Brazil. Latin American telcos (American Movil in Central America, Entel Chile, CNT Ecuador and Oi Brazil) continued to expand their triple play offering by adding pay-TV subscribers using NAGRA technologies. Telefonica continued to grow its DTH subscribers in the region with new NAGRA products, in particular in Chile, Colombia and Venezuela. In Brazil, relying on MediaAccess content protection and OpenTV5 middleware, Unotel is launching a new pay-TV service which will enable their partners and shareholders to offer full triple play services to their existing 4 million broadband subscriber base.”

Looking forward, and specifically talking about its agreement with Cisco, Kudelski’s statement said: “For 2014, management expects to report total revenues and other operating income between CHF 865 and 880 million and an operating income between CHF 55 and 65 million. While the revenue contribution from the Kudelski IP initiative is difficult to predict, a significant patent cross license agreement was signed with Cisco in January 2014 and will provide a positive contribution to the Group’s 2014 P&L, supporting the increasing levels of investments in 2014. The Group expects its cybersecurity business line to maintain its positive momentum coming into 2014, further contributing to Group’s top line growth. On the other hand, other operating income is expected to be lower in 2014. In the core Digital TV market, weak fundamentals in Europe will continue to affect volumes. Finally, in the Public Access segment, the Group expects a solid single digit revenue growth as well as further positive development of operating income.”